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o  9153  UlnyasOfe  B 


THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 


IN    THE 


WAR   OF   THE  REBELLION. 


1 

I 
i 

M 

1       ^' 

mps 

^                 i 

^m^ 

4 

1 
.... „.., J 

Rebecca, 
a  slave  girl  from  new  orleans 


THE 


NEGEO  AS  A  SOLDIER 


nr  THE 


WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION. 


BY 

NORWOOD  P.  HALLOWELL, 

COLONEL,  FIFTY-FIFTH  KEGIMBKT,  MASSACHUSETTS  VOLUNTEERS. 


Read  before  the  Military  Historical   Society  of 
Massachusetts,  January  5,  1892. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 

1897. 


t 


^^5 

Copyright,  1897, 
By  N.  P,  Hallowell. 


John  Wilsox  and  Son,  Cambeidge,  U.S.A. 


THE  NEaHO  AS  A  SOLDIEE 


IN  THE 


WAR  OF    THE    REBELLION. 


Once  upon  a  time,  at  our  old  home  in  Philadelphia, 
there  were  two  little  girls  whose  names  were  Rebecca 
and  Rosa.  They  had  Caucasian  features,  an  abundance 
of  long  wavy  hair,  and  complexions  that  were  suggestive 
merely  of  a  clime  sunnier  than  our  own.  Taking  one  of 
their  hands  into  your  own,  your  eye  might  have  discovered 
at  the  finger  tips  a  color  of  a  darker  hue  than  the  other 
parts.  It  was  the  fatal  single  drop  of  negro  blood  that 
cursed  the  whole  beautiful  fabric  and  made  it  possible  for 
these  children  to  be  fugitive  slaves.  Hid  away  in  the 
barn  of  our  country  residence  was  another  fugitive,  —  a 
tall,  lithe,  muscular  man,  black  as  anthracite,  Daniel 
Dangerfield  by  name,  now  forgotten  no  doubt,  but  then 
enjoying  for  a  brief  period  a  national  reputation.  The 
police  force  of  Philadelphia  was  watching  for  that  man. 
The  detectives  looked  mysterious  as  they  went  about  on 
their  false  scents  and  failed  to  see  our  Daniel  as  he  passed 
on  to  the  next  station  of  the  Underground  Railroad,  com- 
fortably seated  in  my  mother's  carriage,  the  curtains 
drawn,  my  brother  Edward  on  the  box  quite  ready  to  use 


2  THE  NEGEO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

his  five-shooter,  and  a  younger  brother  in  the  less  heroic 
part  of  driver. 

These  fugitive-slave  scenes,  once  so  famiHar,  are  recalled 
because,  to  appreciate  correctly  the  military  significance  of 
the  arming  of  citizens  of  African  descent,  it  is  necessary  to 
forget  for  the  moment  the  great  "  Amendments,"  and  to 
remember  the  old  times.  To  estimate  the  colored  man 
as  a  soldier  it  is  essential  to  recall  his  status  before  the 
war,  for  the  reason  that  his  previous  condition  of  slavery 
in  the  South,  and  his  social,  political,  commercial  and 
religious  ostracism  in  the  North,  ought  naturally,  and  in 
fact  does  do  somewhat,  to  interpret  his  qualities  when 
bearing  arms.  The  subject  is  complex.  The  character- 
istics of  the  English  are  such  that  the  expression,  an 
"English  soldier,"  conveys  a  distinct  idea;  the  words,  a 
"  German  soldier,"  at  once  suggest  a  well-defined  picture. 
To  say  simply  a  "  French  soldier  "  gives  still  another  well- 
understood  type.  A  "  negro  soldier  "  or  "  colored  soldier  " 
conveys,  no  doubt,  to  most  minds  some  similar  plain 
meaning ;  but  is  the  impression  made  necessarily  a  correct 
one  ?  Is  not  the  expression  "  a  colored  soldier  "  as  vague 
as  the  expression  "  a  white  soldier  "  ?  I  think  it  is.  Had 
we  only  to  deal  with  the  thick-lipped  negro  of  Congo,  the 
subject  would  be  simple  enough.  But  we  are  dealing 
now  with  the  soldiers  of  a  people  in  whose  veins  is  an 
admixture  of  the  blood  of  every  nationality  that  is  repre- 
sented on  this  continent.  The  blood  that  coursed  through 
the  veins  of  our  little  slave  girls  was,  barring  the  one 
fatal  drop,  the  same  blood  that  coursed  through  the  veins 
of  one  of  the  proud  families  of  Louisiana,  —  a  family  that 
sent  its  sons,  the  white  ones,  to  our  New  England  col- 
leges.    It  was  not  the  same  thing  —  ninety-nine  one  hun- 


m  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  8 

dredths  of  it  was  not  —  that  flowed  beneath  the  skin  of 
Daniel  Dangerfield,  innocent  as  he  was,  apparently,  of  any 
such  admixture,  and  yet  it  is  all  called  "  negro." 

Nicholas  Said,  a  private  in  our  Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts 
Regiment,  was  a  native  of  Bornou,  Eastern  Soudan,  Central 
Africa.  He  was  tattooed  on  his  forehead  after  the  manner 
of  the  ruling  class  of  his  tribe.  His  linguistic  ability  was 
very  marked.  In  the  regiment  he  wrote  and  spoke  flu- 
ently the  English,  French,  German  and  Italian  languages ; 
while  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  was  master  of  Kanouri, 
(his  vernacular),  Mandra,  Arabic,  Turkish  and  Russian,  — 
a  total  of  nine  languages.  The  First  Louisiana  Native 
Guards,  mustered  into  the  service  at  New  Orleans,  were 
recruited  from  the  free  colored  population  of  that  city. 
They  are  described  as  men  of  "  property  and  education,  a 
self-reliant  and  intelligent  class."  "  The  darkest  of  them," 
said  General  Butler,  "were  about  the  complexion  of  the 
late  Mr.  Webster."  ^  On  the  other  hand,  the  First  South 
Carolina  Regiment  had  not  one  mulatto  in  ten,  and  all 
the  enlisted  men  had  been  slaves. 

Such,  in  part,  were  the  heterogeneous  materials  that 
made  up  our  colored  regiments.  Obviously,  it  will  not  be 
safe  to  draw  many  arbitrary  conclusions  and  to  brand  the 
whole  as  distinctively  African.  Avoiding,  however,  any 
further  consideration  of  the  difficulties  suggested  by 
ethnology,  let  us  interpret  the  colored  soldier  as  best  we 
may  by  a  partial  review  of  his  record  in  the  War  of  the 
Slaveholders'  Rebellion.  "  The  war  for  the  Union  was 
not  the  first  one  in  which  the  African  fought  for  the 
liberties  of  our  country.  Black  faces  were  not  uncommon 
among  the  ranks  of  the  patriots  in  Seventeen  hundred 
1  Higginson's  History  of  Black  Regiments,  1. 


4  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

Seventy-six.  The  first  man  to  fall  in  that  struggle  was 
Crispus  Attucks,  who  led  the  mob  in  its  attack  on  the 
British  troops  at  the  Boston  Massacre.  At  Bunker  Hill 
the  free  negroes  fought  intermingled  with  the  whites; 
and  when  Major  Pitcairn  was  killed,  it  was  by  a  bullet 
from  a  negro's  rifle.  At  the  battle  of  Rhode  Island, 
Colonel  Greene's  black  regiment  repulsed  three  successive 
charges,  during  which  they  handled  a  Hessian  regiment 
severely.  In  the  War  of  1812  General  Jackson  issued  a 
proclamation  authorizing  the  formation  of  black  regiments, 
and  subsequently,  in  an  address  to  the  colored  troops 
thus  enlisted,  acknowledged  their  services  in  unstinted 
praise."  ^  General  Washington,  with  characteristic  caution, 
wrote  to  Henry  Laurens  :  "  The  policy  of  our  arming 
slaves  is  in  my  opinion  a  moot  point,  unless  the  enemy  set 
the  example.  .  .  .  Besides,  I  am  not  clear  that  a  discrimi- 
nation will  not  render  slavery  more  irksome  to  those  who 
remain  in  it."  He  adds,  however,  that  these  are  "only 
the  first  crude  ideas  "  that  struck  him.  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, on  the  other  hand,  gave  his  unqualified  and  hearty 
support  to  the  measure.  "  An  essential  part  of  the  plan," 
he  urged,  "  is  to  give  them  their  freedom  with  their 
muskets."  ^ 

The  first  systematic  attempt  to  recruit  colored  men  in 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion  was  made  by  General  Hunter  at 
Hilton  Head.  His  efibrt  was  valuable  as  an  example  of 
how  not  to  do  it.  Impatient  at  the  slow  progress  of  his 
work,  he  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  forcing  the  freedmen 
into  the  ranks.  While  working  on  the  plantations  they 
were  rudely  seized  by  squads  of  soldiers  and  taken  into 

1  Fox's  Eegimental  Losses,  52. 

2  Livermore's  Historical  Eesearch,  168. 


IN  THE  WAK  OF  THE  EEBELLION.  5 

camp  as  prisoners.  Here  they  were  told  by  their  enemies 
that  they  were  to  be  returned  to  slavery  or  sent  to  Cuba. 
There  was  no  mutual  confidence  between  officers  and 
men.  Desertions  were  numerous,  discontent  general.  In 
five  months  the  regiment  was  disbanded  without  pay. 
One  company,  however,  maintained  its  organization,  doing 
some  good  work  by  hunting  down  and  driving  the  rebels 
from  St.  Simon's  Island,  —  a  job  that  had  been  initiated  by 
the  colored  residents  of  the  island  themselves.  Twenty- 
five  of  these  natives  had  arrne^  themselves,  under  the 
command  of  one  of  their  own  number,  whose  name  was 
John  Brown.  He  was  ambuscaded  and  shot  dead,  prob- 
ably the  first  black  man,  says  Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson, 
whose  recital  I  am  following,  almost  literally,  who  fell 
under  arms  in  the  war.  This  was  the  first  armed  en- 
counter, so  far  as  known,  between  the  rebels  and  their 
former  slaves ;  and  it  is  worth  noticing  that  the  attempt 
was  a  spontaneous  thing,  and  not  accompanied  by  any 
white  man.  The  men  were  not  soldiers,  nor  in  uniform. 
The  rebel  leader,  one  Miles  Hazard,  and  his  party  made 
good  their  escape.  In  the  following  year  there  was  cap- 
tured at  the  railroad  station  in  Jacksonville,  Florida,  a  box 
of  papers.  Among  them  was  a  letter  from  this  very 
Hazard  to  a  friend  describing  the  perils  of  that  adventure, 
and  saying,  "  If  you  wish  to  know  hell  before  your  time, 
go  to  St.  Simon's  and  be  hunted  ten  days  by  niggers."  ^ 

The  arming  of  slaves  by  Major-General  Hunter,  and  a 
similar  movement  initiated  by  Brigadier-General  Phelps  at 
New  Orleans,  stirred  President  Jefferson  Davis  to  the 
innermost  recesses  of  his  unhappy  mind.  On  August 
20th,  1862,  he  directed  that  both  generals  should  be  no 

1  Higginson's  History  of  Black  Kegiments,  275. 


6  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

longer  held  and  treated  as  public  enemies  of  the  Confed- 
erate States,  but  as  outlaws  ;  and  that  in  the  event  of  the 
capture  of  either  of  them,  or  that  of  any  other  commis- 
sioned officer  employed  in  drilling,  organizing  or  instructing 
slaves,  with  a  view  to  their  armed  service  in  the  war,  he 
should  not  be  regarded  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  but  held  in 
close  confinement  for  execution  as  a  felon  at  such  time  and 
place  as  might  be  ordered.  On  May  1,  1863,  the  Con- 
federate Congress  passed  an  act  which  outlawed  all  com- 
missioned white  officers  who  should  command  negroes  or 
mulattoes,  whether  slaves  ox  free,  in  arms  against  the  Con- 
federate States. 

The  attention  of  the  country  at  large  was  first  seriously 
directed  to  the  consideration  of  this  new  element  in  the 
army  when  Governor  John  A.  Andrew  obtained  an  order 
from  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  authorizing 
him  to  organize  persons  of  African  descent  into  separate 
corps  for  the  volunteer  military  service.  As  a  consequence, 
a  line  of  recruiting  depots,  running  from  Boston  to  St. 
Louis  in  the  West,  and  to  Fortress  Monroe  in  the  South, 
was  established  and  maintained  to  the  close  of  the  war. 
Two  infantry  regiments,  the  Fifty-fourth  and  Fifty-fifth, 
and  one  cavalry,  the  Fifth,  were  raised,  and  the  ranks  kept 
at  the  maximum  number ;  a  good  piece  of  work,  involving 
an  immense  amount  of  labor,  which  was  done  mainly  by 
two  citizens  of  Medford,  —  George  L.  Stearns  and  Richard 
P.  Hallowell. 

Public  opinion  in  the  !N^orth  was  either  avowedly  hostile 
to  this  scheme  or  entirely  sceptical  as  to  its  value.  In 
Philadelphia,  recruiting  was  attended  with  some  little 
danger,  and  with  so  much  annoyance  that  the  place  of 
rendezvous  was  kept  secret  and  the  squads  were  marched 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLIOl^.  7 

under  cover  of  darkness  to  the  depot.  In  Ohio  it  was 
considered  a  good  joke  to  get  the  "  darkies  on  to  Massa- 
chusetts,"—  a  joke  that  was  bitterly  repented  when  Ohio 
at  a  later  day  tried  in  vain  to  get  those  same  "  darkies  " 
credited  to  her  quota.  In  Boston  there  were  contemptu- 
ous remarks  by  individuals  from  both  extremes  of  society ; 
by  certain  members  of  a  prominent  club,  who  later  on 
hissed  the  Fifty-fourth  Regiment  from  their  windows  as  it 
marched  on  its  way  to  the  front ;  and  by  a  Boston  journal 
whose  editors  disgraced  their  columns  with  reflections  too 
vulgar  for  repetition.  There  was,  too,  much  good-natured 
laughing  and  harmless  joking  among  other  classes.  Be- 
fore long,  however,  the  prevailing  undertone  of  thought 
became  thoroughly  respectful  and  kind,  while  the  pecu- 
niary aid  given  was  limited  only  by  the  amount  asked  for. 
The  colored  man  from  the  free  States  as  a  soldier  may 
be  conveniently  and  fairly  tested  by  the  record  of  our 
Massachusetts  regiments,  for  the  reason,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  that  those  regiments  contained  every  known  variety 
of  citizen  of  African  descent,  and  were  recruited  from  every 
class  and  condition  of  colored  society.  That  the  Massa- 
chusetts regiments  were  not  composed  of  picked  men, 
except  as  to  physique,  is  conclusively  shown  by  the  statis- 
tics. Those  of  the  Fifty-fifth  are  here  given.  Those  of 
the  Fifty-fourth  do  not  materially  differ. 


Statistics  op  the  Fifty-Fifth  Regt.  Mass.  Vols. 

BiKTHPLACE. 


Maine 

.     .         1 

ISTew  Jersey    .     .     . 

.     .        8 

Vermont    .... 

.     .         1 

Pennsylvania      .     . 

.     .     139 

Massachusetts     .     . 

.     .       22 

Maryland  .... 

.     .       19 

Rhode  Island      .     . 

.     .         3 

Virginia     .... 

.     .     106 

Connecticut    .     .     . 

.     .        4 

North  Carolina  .     . 

.     .       30 

New  York      .     .     . 

...       23 

Georgia      .... 

.     .         6 

8 


THE  NEGRO  AS   A  SOLDIER 


Alabama  . 
Mississippi 
Louisiana  . 
Arkansas  . 
Missouri  . 
Ohio  .  . 
Indiana 
Illinois .     . 


....  1 

....  1 

....  66 

....  222 

....  97 

....  56 

Kentucky 68 


Tennessee  .  .  . 
Micliigan  .... 
Wisconsin      .     .     . 

Iowa 

District  of  Columbia 
Nova  Scotia  .  .  . 
Canada      .... 

Africa 

Unknown  .... 


24 

8 
7 
9 

10 
1 
3 
1 

11 


Trades  and  Occupations. 


Farmers 596 

Laborers 74 

Barbers 34 

Waiters 50 

Cooks 27 

Blacksmiths 21 

Painters 7 

Teamsters 27 

Grooms 7 

Hostlers 9 

Coachmen 3 

Coopers 5 

Sailors 20 

Butchers 8 

Iron-workers 2 

Shoemakers 9 

Masons  and  Plasterers  .     .  16 

Brick-makers       ....  3 

Whitewashers      .     .     .     :  2 

Stonecutters 2 

Printers           3 

Boatmen 6 

Teachers   ......  6 

Clerks 5 

Porters 5 

Carpenters 6 

Wagon-makers    ....  2 

Millers 2 

Engineers 3 


Firemen  .  .  . 
Coppersmith  .  . 
Machinist  .  .  . 
Rope-maker  . 
Fisherman  .  . 
Tinker  .... 
Harness-maker  . 
Caulker  .  .  . 
Glass-grinder .  . 
Musician  .  .  . 
Moulder  .  .  . 
Confectioner  . 
Tobacco- worker . 
Clergyman  .  . 
Broom-maker 
Baker  .... 
Student     .     .     . 


No.  who  had  been  slaves  .  247 
No.  pure  blacks  ....  550 
No.  mixed  blood  ....  430 
No.  who  could  read  .  .  .  477 
No.   who   could   read   and 

write 319 

No.  church-members  .  .  52 
No.  married  .....  219 
Average  age  .  .  .  23^  years 
Average  height   .     .     5 ^V  feet  ^ 


Every  school  has  its  obstreperous  boys,  every  class  at 
Harvard  has  its  fast  men,  every  regiment  in  the  service  had 
its  hard  characters.     The  problem  to  be  solved  in  almost 

1  Eecord  of  the  sernce  of  the  55tli  Eegiment  of  Mass.  Vols.  Infantry, 
110  ei  seq. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  9 

every  congregation  of  men  is  not  so  much  the  care  of  the 
virtuous  many  as  the  discipline  of  the  troublesome  few. 
Colonel  Robert  Gould  Shaw  was  not  a  sentimentalist. 
He  imposed  the  strict  discipline  of  the  Second  Regiment, 
from  which  he  came,  upon  the  Fifty-fourth.  The  men  of 
a  slave  regiment  required,  and  in  the  case  of  the  First 
South  Carolina  received,  treatment  very  different  from 
that  required  by  mixed  regiments  like  the  Fifty-fourth  and 
Fifty-fifth.  In  a  slave  regiment  the  harsher  forms  of 
punishment  were,  or  ought  to  have  been,  unknown,  so  that 
every  suggestion  of  slavery  might  be  avoided.  This  was 
Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson's  enlightened  method,  —  the 
method  of  kindness,  and  it  was  successful.  Colonel 
Shaw's  method  was  the  method  of  coercion,  and  it  too 
was  successful.  The  imruly  members  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
and  Fifty-fifth  were  stood  on  barrels,  bucked,  gagged  and, 
if  need  be,  shot ;  in  fact,  treated  as  white  soldiers  were  in 
all  well-disciplined  regiments.  The  squads  of  recruits 
which  arrived  at  Readville  for  the  Fifty-fifth  could  hardly 
at  first  sight  have  been  called  picked  men.  They  were 
poor  and  ragged.  Upon  arrival  they  were  marched  to  the 
neighboring  pond,  disrobed,  washed  and  uniformed.  Their 
old  clothes  were  burnt.  The  transformation  was  quite 
wonderful.  The  recruit  was  very  much  pleased  with  the 
uniform.  He  straightened  up,  grew  inches  taller,  lifted, 
not  shuffled,  his  feet,  began  at  once  to  try,  and  to  try  hard, 
to  take  the  position  of  the  soldier,  the  facings  and  other 
preliminary  drill,  so  that  his  ambition  to  carry  "  one  of 
those  muskets  "  might  be  gratified.  When  finally  he  was 
entrusted  with  the  responsible  duties  of  a  guard,  there  was 
nothing  quite  so  magnificent  and,  let  me  add,  quite  so 
reliable,  as  the  colored  volunteer.     The  effect  of  camp  dis- 


10  THE  NEGRO   AS  A  SOLDIER 

cipline  on  his  character  was  very  marked.  His  officers 
were  gentlemen  who  understood  the  correct  orthography 
and  pronunciation  of  the  word  "negro."  For  the  first 
time  in  his  life  he  found  himself  respected,  and  entrusted 
with  duties,  for  the  proper  performance  of  which  he  would 
be  held  to  a  strict  accountability.  Crossing  the  camp 
lines  by  connivance  of  the  guard  was  almost  unknown. 
"  Running  guard "  was  an  experiment  too  dangerous  to 
try.  The  niceties  of  guard-mounting  and  guard-duty,  the 
absolute  steadiness  essential  to  a  successful  dress-parade, 
were  all  appreciated  and  faithfully  observed.  The  clean- 
liness of  the  barracks  and  camp  grounds  at  Readville  was 
a  delight.  Not  a  scrap  of  loose  floating  paper  or  stuff 
of  any  kind  was  permitted.  The  muskets,  the  accoutre- 
ments, were  kept  clean  and  polished.  Every  one  was 
interested,  every  one  did  his  best.  The  Sunday  morning 
inspections  discovered  a  degree  of  perfection  that  received 
much  praise  from  several  regular  as  well  as  veteran  volun- 
teer officers.  It  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  thousands 
of  strangers  who  visited  the  camp  were  instantly  converted 
by  what  they  saw.  The  aptitude  of  the  colored  volunteer 
to  learn  the  manual  of  arms,  to  execute  readily  the  orders 
for  company  and  regimental  movements,  and  his  apparent 
inability  to  march  out  of  time  at  once  arrested  the  atten- 
tion of  every  officer.  His  power  of  imitation  was  great, 
his  memory  for  such  movements  was  good,  and  his  ear  for 
time  or  cadence  perfect.  You  may  call  the  imitative 
power  a  sign  of  inferiority,  or  what  you  will.  We  have 
now  to  do  with  the  negro  as  a  soldier,  and  as  such  it  may 
be  accurately  said  that  the  average  colored  soldier  adapts 
himself  more  readily  to  the  discipline  of  a  camp,  and 
acquires  what  is  called  the  drill,  in  much  less  time  than 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  11 

the  average  white  soldier.  These  characteristics  stand 
out  clear  and  undisputed  by  those]^  who  have  had  expe- 
rience in  both  kinds  of  regiments.  Treated  kindly  and 
respectfully,  the  average  colored  citizen  is  the  most  inof- 
fensive of  persons.  He  prefers  to  get  out  of  rather  than 
in  your  way.  Innately  he  is  a  gentleman.  Instinctively 
he  touches  his  hat  when  passing.  The  requirements  of 
military  discipline  were  very  favorable  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  these  traits,  so  much  so  that  in  the  matter  of 
etiquette  and  polite  manners  one  felt  that  he  was  in  com- 
mand of  a  regiment  of  a  thousand  men,  —  each  man  a 
possible  Lord  Chesterfield. 

Fort  Wagner. 

Fort  Wagner  was  situated  on  the  north  end  of  Morris 
Island,  Charleston  Harbor.  It  was  an  enclosed  work 
constructed  of  huge  timbers  and  rafters,  covered  over  with 
earth  and  sand,  some  twenty  feet  thick.  In  its  bomb- 
proof shelter  a  garrison  varying  from  750  to  1400  effective 
men  withstood  with  trifling  loss  the  bombardment  which 
lasted  almost  uninterruptedly  night  and  day  for  fifty  days. 
The  terrible  fire  of  the  Federal  land  batteries  and  the 
"  Ironsides,"  eight  monitors  and  five  gunboats,  seemed  sure 
to  tear  out  the  very  insides  of  the  fort,  but,  in  fact,  simply 
excited  a  lively  commotion  in  the  sand.  It  was  sur- 
rounded with  a  ditch  and  provided  with  a  sluice-gate  for  re- 
taining the  high  tides.  It  extended  from  high-water  mark 
on  the  east,  six  hundred  and  thirty  feet,  to  Vincent's  Creek 
and  the  impassable  marshes  on  the  west.  It  was  armed 
with  eighteen  guns  of  various  calibre,  of  which  number,  fif- 
teen covered  the  only  approach  by  land,  which  was  along 
the  beach  and  was  the  width  of  scarcely  half  a  company 


12  THE  NEGRO   AS  A  SOLDIER 

front  in  one  place.  This  approach  was  swept  not  only  by 
the  guns  of  Wagner,  but  also  by  those  of  Battery  Gregg  on 
Cumming's  Point,  the  very  northern  extremity  of  the  island, 
and  by  those  of  Sumter,  and  it  was  enfiladed  by  several 
heavily-armed  batteries  on  James  and  Sullivan  Islands. 

The  first  assault,  in  which  the  colored  troops  took  no 
part,  was  made  on  the  morning  of  July  11th,  1863. 
General  Gillmore  officially  reported:  "The  parapet  was 
gained,  but  the  support  recoiled  under  the  fire  to  which 
they  were  exposed,  and  would  not  be  gotten  up."  The 
second  and  more  famous  assault  was  made  at  twilight  on 
the  evening  of  July  18th,  by  two  brigades,'  the  one  under 
command  of  Brigadier-General  Strong,  the  other  under 
Colonel  Putnam,  and  the  whole  under  Brigadier-General 
Seymour.  The  First  Brigade  was  designated  to  storm  the 
fort,  the  Second  to  support  the  First.  Our  Fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts  led  the  column.  In  quick  time  that  de- 
voted column  went  on  to  its  destiny,  heedless  of  the  gaps 
made  in  its  ranks  by  the  relentless  fire  of  the  guns  of 
Wagner,  of  Gregg,  of  Sumter,  of  James  and  Sullivan 
Islands.  When  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  fort, 
the  fire  from  the  Federal  batteries  ceased,  so  that  our  men 
might  not  be  destroyed  by  it.  In  an  instant  the  rebel 
garrison  swarmed  from  the  bomb-proof  to  the  parapet,  and 
to  its  artillery  was  added  the  compact  and  destructive  fire 
of  fourteen  hundred  rifles  at  two  hundred  yards'  -range,  a 
storm  of  solid  shot,  shells,  grape,  canister  and  bullets  that 
annihilated  the  head  of  the  column  and  staggered  for  the 
moment  the  regiments  that  followed.  Something  must  be 
done,  and  that  quickly,  or  everything  would  go  down 
under  that  appalling  fire.  Not  with  the  intoxicated  cheer 
of  men  who  rush  on  to  victory,  but  with  the  reckless 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  13 

shout  that  men  give  when  they  lead  a  forlorn  hope,  the 
two  hundred  yards  were  passed,  the  ditch  was  crossed,  the 
parapet  was  gained,  and  the  State  and  National  colors 
planted  thereon. 

A  characteristic  of  veteran  troops  is  that  they  cannot 
always  be  made  to  attempt  the  seemingly  impossible. 
Over  and  over  again  we  read  of  soldiers  tried  in  many  a 
campaign,  who,  though  hearing  orders,  heed  them  not,  but 
stand  appalled  and  benumbed.  A  characteristic  of  the 
white  veterans  who  were  engaged  in  the  two  assaults  on 
Wagner  was  that  they  "  could  not  be  got  up,"  that  is  to 
say  in  sufficient  numbers  to  push  the  advantage  gained  to 
complete  success.  On  the  second  assault  fragments  of 
regiments  survived  the  narrow  passage  on  the  beach  and 
put  in  an  appearance  within  the  fort.  Other  fragments, 
unable  to  scale  the  parapet,  found  shelter  by  lying  down 
on  the  slope  of  the  fort.  Colonel  John  L,  Chatfield  with 
his  Sixth  Connecticut  and  fragments  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts  and  other  regiments  occupied  the  south- 
east bastion.  The  Thirty -first  North  Carolina  Regiment 
(Confederate),  which  was  to  have  defended  that  bastion 
or  salient,  demoralized  by  a  new  and  strange  experience, 
failed  to  respond,  and  remained  in  the  bomb-proof  For 
one  hour  the  captured  bastion  was  held  against  the  inces- 
sant attacks  of  the  enemy,  who  now  added  pikes  and 
hand  grenades  to  their  weapons  of  defence  and  assault. 
It  was  a  valiant  garrison,  hard  pressed,  and  was  driven, 
for  a  moment,  from  one  side  of  the  work  to  seek  shelter 
among  the  traverses ;  but  when  reinforced  from  Sumter, 
at  the  critical  moment,  it  triumphed. 

Colonel  Shaw  fell  dead  upon  the  parapet.  Captains 
Russell  and  Simpkins  and  other  brave  men  fell  while 


14  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

keeping  the  embrasures  free  from  the  enemy's  gunners  and 
sweeping  the  crest  of  the  parapet  with  their  fire.^  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Edward  N.  Hallowell  reached  the  parapet. 
Desperately  wounded,  he  rolled  into  the  ditch,  was  again 
hit,  and  with  great  difficulty  managed  to  crawl  to  our 
lines.  An  unknown  number  of  enlisted  men  were  killed 
within  the  fort.  Forty  enlisted  men,  including  twenty 
wounded,  were  captured  within  the  fort.  The  State  flag, 
tied,  unfortunately,  to  the  staff  with  ribbons,  was  lost. 
The  staff  itself  was  brought  off.  The  national  colors 
planted  upon  the  parapet  were  upheld  and  eventually 
borne  off  by  Sergeant  William  H.  Carney,  a  heroic  man 
whose  wounds  in  both  legs,  in  the  breast  and  the  right 
arm,  attest  his  devotion  to  his  trust.  The  regiment  went 
into  action  with  twenty-two  officers  and  six  hundred  and 
fifty  enlisted  men.  Fourteen  officers  were  killed  or 
wounded.  Two  hundred  and  fifty-five  enlisted  men  were 
killed  or  wounded.  Prisoners,  not  wounded,  twenty.  Total 
casualties,  officers  and  men,  two  hundred  and  sixty-nine, 
or  forty  per  cent.  The  character  of  the  wounds  attest  the 
nature  of  the  contest.  There  were  wounds  from  bayonet 
thrusts,  sword  cuts,  pike  thrusts  and  hand  grenades ;  and 
there  were  heads  and  arms  broken  and  smashed  by  the 
butt-ends  of  muskets. 

As  bearing  upon  the  disposition  of  Colonel  Shaw's  body 
we  have  the  letter  of  Assistant-Surgeon  John  T.  Luck, 
U.S.A.,  dated  at  New  York,  October  21,  1865  :  — 

To   THE   EdITOE.  of  THE   AkMT  AND   NAVT  JoTJKNAL  :  — 

SiK,  —  I  -was  taken  prisoner  by  the  rebels  the  morning 
after  the  assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  South  Carolina,  July  19th, 
1863.  While  being  conducted  into  the  fort  I  saw  Colonel 
Shaw,  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  (colored)  Eegi- 

1  Emilio's  Fort  "Wagner,  12. 


IN  THE  WAK  OF  THE  KEBELLIOK  15 

mentj  lying  dead  upon  the  ground  just  outside  the  parapet. 
A  stalwart  negro  had  fallen  near  him.  The  rebels  said  the 
negro  was  a  color-sergeant.  The  colonel  had  been  killed 
by  a  rifle-shot  through  the  chest,  though  he  had  received 
other  wounds.  Brigadier-General  Hagood,  commanding  the 
rebel  forces,  said  to  me  :  "I  knew  Colonel  Shaw  before  the 
war,  and  then  esteemed  him.  Had  he  been  in  command  of 
white  troops  I  should  have  given  him  an  honorable  burial. 
As  it  is,  I  shall  bury  him  in  the  common  trench,  with  the 
negroes  that  fell  with  him."  ^ 

General  Hagood  affirms  that  he  has  no  recollection  of 
the  conversation  as  given  by  Surgeon  Luck,  and  attempts 
to  show  that  Colonel  Shaw's  burial  in  the  trench  with  his 
negroes  was  without  significance.  There  appears,  how- 
ever, to  be  no  good  reason  for  changing  the  record.  The 
manner  of  Colonel  Shaw's  burial  has  been  circumstantially 
related  by  two  Confederate  officers,  —  Major  McDonald, 
Fifty-first  North  Carolina,  and  Captain  H.  W.  Hendricks,  — 
both  of  whom  were  present  at  the  time.  Colonel  Shaw's 
body  was  stripped  of  all  his  clothing  save  undershirt  and 
drawers.  This  desecration  of  the  dead  was  done  by  one 
Charles  Blake  and  others.  The  body  was  carried  within 
the  fort  and  there  exposed  for  a  time.  It  was  then  carried 
without  the  fort  and  buried  in  a  trench  with  the  negroes. 
Colonel  Shaw  was  the  only  officer  buried  with  the  colored 
troops.^ 

"  I  know  not,"  said  Governor  Andrew  as  he  handed  the 
colors  to  the  Fifty-fourth,  "  when,  in  all  human  history,  to 
any  given  thousand  men  in  arms  there  has  been  given  a 
work  so  proud,  so  precious,  so  full  of  hope  and  glory,  as 
the  work  committed  to  you." 

1  Harvard  Memorial  Biographies,  211. 

2  Emilio's  History  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Eegiment,  98  et  sea.,  and  226. 


16  THE  NEGEO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

Colonel  Shaw  was  in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  his  age^ — 
how  young  it  seems  now !  —  and  had  seen  two  years  of 
hard  service  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  His  clean-cut 
face,  quick,  decided  step,  and  singular  charm  of  manner, 
full  of  grace  and  virtue,  bespoke  the  hero.  The  immortal 
charge  of  his  black  regiment  reads  like  a  page  of  the  Iliad 
or  a  story  from  Plutarch.  I  have  always  thought  that  in 
the  great  war  with  the  slave  power  the  figure  that  stands 
out  in  boldest  relief  is  that  of  Colonel  Shaw.  There  were 
many  others  as  brave  and  devoted  as  he,  —  the  humblest 
private  who  sleeps  in  yonder  cemetery  or  fills  an  unknown 
grave  in  the  South  is  as  much  entitled  to  our  gratitude,  — 
but  to  no  others  was  given  an  equal  opportunity.  By  the 
earnestness  of  his  convictions,  the  unselfishness  of  his  char- 
acter, his  championship  of  an  enslaved  race,  and  the  manner 
of  his  death,  all  the  conditions  are  given  to  make  Shaw 
the  best  historical  exponent  of  the  underlying  cause,  the 
real  meaning  of  the  war.  He  was  the  fair  type  of  all  that 
was  brave,  generous,  beautiful,  and  of  all  that  was  best 
worth  fighting  for  in  the  war  of  the  slaveholders'  Rebellion. 

Yes,  the  colored  troops  fought  well.  That  is  not  the 
most  that  may  be  said  for  men.  The  courage  that  is 
necessary  to  face  death  in  battle  is  not  of  the  highest 
order.  The  lower  the  scale  of  civilization  the  higher  the 
degree  of  that  kind  of  courage.  It  is  all  very  well  of  course 
to  praise  the  bravery  of  these  men  as  soldiers,  but  with  what 
words  may  we  express  our  admiration  of  the  dignity,  self- 
respect,  self-control,  they  showed  in  their  conduct  as  men 
as  well  as  soldiers  in  the  matter  of  pay?  They  were 
promised  the  same  pay,  and,  in  general,  the  same  treat- 
ment, as  white  soldiers.  No  one  expected  the  same  treat- 
ment in  the  sense  of  courtesy,  but  every  one  believed  a 


Col.  Robert  G.  Shaw. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  17 

great  nation  would  keep  faith  with  its  soldiers  in  the  beg- 
garly matter  of  pay.  They  were  promised  thirteen  dollars 
per  month.  They  were  insulted  with  an  offer  of  seven 
dollars.  Massachusetts  resented  the  insult,  and  attempted 
to  remedy  the  wrong  by  offering  to  make  good  the  differ- 
ence between  the  thirteen  dollars  promised  and  the  seven 
dollars  offered.  The  State  agents,  with  money  in  hand, 
visited  the  camps  on  Folly  and  Morris  islands,  and 
pleaded  with  the  men  by  every  argument,  by  every  persua- 
sion they  could  command.-  In  vain;  they  were  the 
soldiers  of  the  Union,  not  of  a  State.  They  would  receive 
their  pay  in  full  from  the  United  States,  or  they  would  not 
receive  it  at  all.  The  Nation  might  break  its  faith,  but 
they  would  keep  theirs.  Every  mail  brought  letters  from 
wives  and  children  asking  for  money.  In  some  instances 
their  homes  were  broken  up  and  the  almshouse  received 
their  families.  At  times  the  regiments  were  driven  to  the 
verge  of  mutiny.  In  point  of  fact,  the  Fifty-fifth  did  one 
morning  stack  arms,  not  in  an  angry,  tumultuous  way,  but 
in  a  sullen,  desperate  mood  that  expressed  a  wish  to  be 
marched  out  to  be  shot  down  rather  than  longer  hear  the 
cries  from  home  and  longer  endure  the  galling  sense  of 
humiliation  and  wrong.  But  better  counsels  prevailed, 
and  a  grand  catastrophe  was  averted  by  the  patriotism  and 
innate  good  sense  of  the  men,  added  to  the  infinite  patience, 
tact,  and  firmness  of  the  officers.  One  poor  fellow,  a  ser- 
geant in  the  Third  South  Carolina,  induced  his  company 
to  stack  arms  on  the  ground  that  he  was  "  released  from 
duty  by  the  refusal  of  the  Government  to  fulfil  its  share  of 
the  contract."  He  was  logical,  but  it  was  in  time  of  war, 
and  the  only  thing  to  be  done,  was  done.  He  was  court- 
martialled  and  shot.     In  the  scathing  words  of  Governor 

2 


18  THE  NEGRO   AS  A  SOLDIER 

Andrew :  "  The  Government  which  found  no  law  to  pay 
him  except  as  a  nondescript  and  a  contraband,  neverthe- 
less found  law  enough  to  shoot  him  as  a  soldier."  Seven 
times  were  our  regiments  mustered  for  pay.  Seven  times 
they  refused,  and  pointed  to  their  honorable  scars  to  plead 
their  manhood  and  their  rights.  The  men  of  the  Fifty- 
fifth  for  sixteen,  of  the  Fifty-fourth  for  eighteen,  months 
toiled  on  and  fought  on  without  one  cent  of  pay,  and  at 
last  they  won,  —  won  through  long  suffering  and  patient 
endurance ;  won  through  a  higher  and  rarer  courage  than 
the  courage  of  battle, — a  victory  that  is  not  inscribed  on 
their  flags  by  the  side  of  Wagner,  of  James  Island,  of 
Olustee,  and  of  Honey  Hill,  but  which  none  the  less  fills 
one  of  the  noblest  and  brightest  pages  in  the  history  of 
their  race,  as  it  does  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  in  the 
record  of  our  war. 

In  January  of  the  year  1781,  under  conditions  far  less 
exasperating,  the  American  army  quartered  at  Morristown 
mutinied  for  lack  of  pay,  declared  their  intention  of  de- 
parting to  their  homes,  and  were  only  restrained  from 
carrying  their  threat  into  execution  by  the  personal  influ- 
ence and  solicitation  of  the  Commander-in  Chief.^ 

The  tender  of  full  payment  from  date  of  enlistment, 
when  finally  made  by  the  United  States,  was  made  to 
those  only  who  would  make  oath  that  they  were  free  on 
or  before  April  21,  1861.  We  must  thoroughly  respect 
the  tender  consciences  of  two  or  three  men  who  could  not 
in  strict  conformity  with  the  truth  and  who  did  not  make 
this  oath,  and  who  therefore  never  received  their  pay,  but 
we  have  no  harsh  words  for  the  many  who  were  equal  to 
the  occasion  by  swearing  to  their  freedom  on  April  21st, 

1  History  of  the  Bank  of  Nortli  America,  24, 


IN  THE  WAK  OF  THE  REBELLION.  19 

or  any  other  day.  Those  who  were  fugitive  slaves,  and 
hence  in  a  legal  sense  not  free  at  the  time  specified,  had 
overcome  too  many  difficulties  in  their  escape  from  the 
South,  and  in  their  efforts  to  avoid  the  slave-hounds  in  the 
North,  to  be  seriously  annoyed  by  this  grotesque  proposition 
to  swear  away  their  back  pay  by  denying  their  freedom. 

Fort  Wagner  was  finally  reduced  by  regular  siege  opera- 
tions extending  from  July  18th  to  September  7th,  1863. 
Five  approaches  or  parallels  were  run  across  the  island 
from  the  right  to  the  marshes  on  the  left ;  the  fifth  and 
last  parallel  was  within  two  hundred  and  forty  yards  of 
the  fort.  In  its  construction  the  remains  of  Federal  sol- 
diers who  had  been  buried  by  the  rebels  after  the  assaults 
were  excavated.  The  ground  was  thick  with  torpedoes, 
which  were  removed,  not  without  some  distressing  casual- 
ties. Their  presence  explained  the  inactivity  of  the  garri- 
son, which  hitherto  had  been  a  mystery.  This  reliance  upon 
torpedoes  instead  of  upon  constant  sorties  to  harass  the 
fatigue  parties  and  to  delay  or  destroy  their  works  is  noted 
by  Gillraore  and  others  as  the  capital  defect  in  the  defence 
of  Wagner.  A  further  trench,  which  may  be  called  a 
branch  of  the  fifth  parallel,  permitted  an  approach  within 
one  hundred  yards.  Indeed,  on  the  night  preceding  the 
evacuation,  the  sappers  pushed  on  by  the  south  face,  leav- 
ing it  at  their  left,  and  removing  a  sort  of  palisade  made 
up  of  projecting  pikes  and  sharp-pointed  stakes  "  firmly 
planted  in  the  counterscarp  of  the  ditch."  By  means  of 
calcium  lights  the  fort  was  kept  well  illuminated,  and  our 
own  men  all  the  more  enshrouded  in  darkness.  The  work 
was  done  under  constant  fire  and  almost  altogether  at 
night.  Finally,  on  the  morning  of  September  7th,- when 
General   Gillmore   was  again  prepared  to   assault,   both 


20  THE  NEGRO  AS  A   SOLDIER 

Wagner  and  Gregg  were  evacuated  with  the  trifling  loss  to 
the  rebels  of  two  boats  containing  nineteen  saUors  and 
twenty-seven  soldiers  of  the  rear  guard.  In  the  somewhat 
contemptuous  language  of  the  Confederate  Major  Robert 
C.  Gilchrist,  "  Seven  hundred  and  forty  men  were  driven 
out  of  a  sandhill  by  eleven  thousand  five  hundred." 

The  following  official  inquiries  were  made  of  the  en- 
gineers who  directed  the  operations  of  working  parties  of 
both  white  and  black  troops  during  the  siege  of  Wagner : 

1.  Courage,  as  indicated  by  their  behavior  under  fire. 

2.  Skill  and  appreciation  of  their  duties,  referring  to 
the  quality  of  the  work  performed. 

3.  Industry  and  perseverance  with  reference  to  the 
quantity  of  the  work  performed. 

4.  If  a  certain  work  were  to  be  accomplished  in  the 
least  possible  time,  i.  e.,  when  enthusiasm  and  direct  per- 
sonal interest  are  necessary  to  attain  the  end,  would  whites 
or  blacks  answer  best  ? 

5.  What  is  the  difference,  considering  the  above  points, 
between  colored  troops  recruited  from  the  free  States,  and 
those  from  the  slave  States  ? 

Six  replies  to  these  inquiries  were  received  from  engineer 
officers  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  siege ;  the  substance 
of  them  is  embraced  in  the  following  summary  :  — 

1.  To  the  first  question,  all  answer  that  the  black  is 
more  timorous  than  the  white,  but  is  in  a  corresponding 
degree  more  docile  and  obedient,  —  hence  more  completely 
under  the  control  of  his  commander,  and  much  more 
influenced  by  his  example. 

2.  All  agree  that  the  black  is  less  skilful  than  the 
white  soldier,  but  still  enough  so  for  most  kinds  of  siege 
work. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  21 

3.  The  statements  unanimously  agree  that  the  black 
will  do  a  greater  amount  of  work  than  the  white  soldier, 
because  he  labors  more  constantly. 

4.  The  whites  are  decidedly  superior  in  enthusiasm. 
The  blacks  cannot  be  easily  hurried  in  their  work,  no 
matter  what  the  emergency. 

5.  All  agree  that  the  colored  troops  recruited  from  the 
free  States  are  superior  to  those  recruited  from  slave  States. 

The  average  percentage  of  sick  among  the  negro  troops 
during  the  siege  was  13.9,  while  that  of  the  white  in- 
fantry was  20.1  per  cent. 

The  foregoing  summary  is  taken  from  the  appendix  to 
Gillmore's  Report,  where  also  two  of  the  replies  are  given 
in  full,  and  are  supposed  to  be  a  fair  sample  of  the  others. 
One  of  the  engineers  says :  "  I  will  say,  in  my  opinion 
their  courage  is  rather  of  the  passive  than  the  active  kind. 
They  will  stay,  endure,  resist  and  follow ;  but  they  have 
not  the  restless,  aggressive  spirit.  I  do  not  believe  they 
will  desert  their  oificers  in  trying  moments  in  so  great 
numbers  as  the  whites ;  they  have  not  the  will,  audacity 
or  fertility  of  excuse  of  the  straggling  white,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  have  not  the  heroic  nervous  energy  or 
vivid  perception  of  the  white,  who  stands  firm  or  presses 
forward.  I  do  not  remember  a  single  instance,  in  my 
labors  in  the  trenches,  where  the  black  man  has  skulked 
away  from  his  duty,  and  I  know  that  instances  of  that 
kind  have  occurred  among  the  whites ;  still,  I  think  that 
the  superior  energy  and  intelligence  of  those  remaining, 
considering  that  the  whites  were  the  lesser  number  by  the 
greater  desertion,  would  more  than  compensate."  The 
other  reply  reads,  in  answer  to  the  first  inquiry  :  "  I  have 
found   that   black  troops  manifest  more   timidity  under 


22  THE  NEGKO   AS  A  SOLDIER 

fire  than  white  troops ;  but  they  are,  at  the  same  time, 
more  obedient  to  orders  and  more  under  the  control 
of  their  officers,  in  dangerous  situations,  than  white 
soldiers." 

The  evidence  of  the  engineers  was  more  favorable  than 
was  expected  by  those  who  knew  them.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  what  they  style  "  superior  intelligence  "  and  "  en- 
thusiasm," their  replies  quite  make  up  the  beau  ideal  of  a 
soldier.  To  stay,  to  endure,  to  resist,  to  follow,  to  work 
patiently,  doggedly,  to  obey  orders,  never  to  skulk,  or  to 
desert  their  officers  in  trying  moments,  —  what  more  do 
you  expect,  what  more  do  you  find  in  the  mass  of  men 
who  go  to  make  up  an  army  ?  "  Superior  intelligence " 
they  had  not,  —  that  is  an  essential  for  an  officer ;  average 
intelligence  may  be,  "  superior  intelligence  "  is  not,  needed 
in  the  soldier.  The  engineers  themselves  did  not  want  it ; 
they  did  not  even  want  "  nervous  energy  "  and  "  enthusi- 
asm "  in  the  trenches.  The  simple  fact  is,  the  engineers 
clamored  for  details  of  black  troops,  and  were  always  dis- 
appointed and  provoked  when  they  could  not  get  them. 
The  engineers  were  good  fellows,  most  of  them.  They 
were  competent  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  working  par- 
ties in  the  trenches,  but  they  did  not  know  how  to  write  it 
out.  In  their  willingness  to  try  to  say  the  fair  and  the 
correct  word,  they  admit  more  in  their  comparisons  with 
the  whites  than  I  should  care  to  claim.  Their  conclusion 
seems  to  be  a  jumble  ;  namely,  that  although  the  blacks 
did  the  greater  part  of  the  work,  did  it  more  faithfully 
than  the  whites,  stuck  to  their  officers  in  trying  emer- 
gencies more  devotedly  than  did  the  whites ;  that  although 
they  preferred  the  blacks  in  the  trenches;  yet,  after  all, 
some  how  or  other,  they  don't   exactly  know  why,  yet 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  23 

they  do  prefer  whites !  In  the  matter  of  "  enthusiasm " 
the  engineers  are  altogether  at  fault.  In  five  minutes 
you  can  excite  a  regiment  of  blacks  into  a  pitch  of  en- 
thusiasm that  will  carry  everything  before  it,  provided 
you  yourself  are  sincere ;  provided  you  respect  and  trust 
them  and  they  respect  and  trust  you;  provided  always 
you  know  how  to  spell  and  to  pronounce  the  word 
"negro,"  —  that  sure  test  and  gauge  of  refinement  in 
an  American. 

The  alleged  timidity,  want  of  enthusiasm,  heroic  nervous 
energy,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  is  not,  for  the  engineers, 
very  happily  illustrated  by  the  next  action  in  which  the 
Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts  took  part.  In  an  effort  to  sur- 
prise Battery  Lamar  on  James  Island,  the  Federal  column 
was  itself  surprised  by  a  section  of  artillery  posted  in  an 
old  field-work,  and  supported,  though  not  heavily,  by  both 
cavalry  and  infantry.  One  white  regiment,  a  good  one 
too,  that  has  the  names  of  twenty  battles  inscribed  upon 
its  flags,  was  driven  in  the  utmost  confusion  to  the  rear. 
One  colored  regiment,  armed  with  nearly  worthless  old 
Austrian  rifles,  soon  after  condemned,  did  but  little  better. 
The  Fifty-fifth  went  right  on  in  perfect  order,  charged  the 
battery,  captured  two  twelve-pounder  Napoleon  guns, 
turned  the  guns  upon  the  flying  enemy,  and  brought  them 
ofi"  in  triumph  with  a  loss  of  two  officers  wounded  and 
twenty-six  enlisted  men  killed  or  wounded.  It  may  be 
well  at  this  point  to  pay  brief  attention  to  the  oft-repeated 
question,  "Did  the  colored  fight  as  well  as  the  white 
troops  ? "  by  calling  the  attention  of  the  inquirer  to  the 
obvious  fact  that  these  captured  guns  were  defended, 
under  favorable  conditions,  by  white  troops. 


24  THE  liTEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

Olustee. 
In  the  disastrous  affair  of  Olustee,  Florida,  February 
20tli,  1864,  the  redeeming  feature  appears  to  have  been 
the  conspicuous  gallantry  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts. 
That  regiment  was  hurried  into  action  at  the  very  crisis  of 
affairs.  It  checked  the  onward  sweep  of  a  victorious 
enemy,  and  covered  the  retreat  towards  Jacksonville  in  a 
thoroughly  creditable  manner,  as  I  am  told,  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  Colonel  Edward  N.  Hallowell.  In 
this  battle  the  Eighth  U.  S.  Colored  Infantry  lost  three 
hundred  and  ten  dead,  wounded  and  missing,  —  the  miss- 
ing mostly  dead  or  wounded  left  on  the  field,  —  one  of  the 
severest  regimental  losses  during  the  war. 

Honey  Hill,  S.  -C,  N'ovember  30th,  1864. 

This  assault,  in  its  main  features,  was  a  repetition  of 
Wagner.  The  only  approach  attempted  to  the  rebel  bat- 
teries and  intrenchments  was  the  narrow  cutting  through 
which  the  road  crossed  the  swamp.  Through  this  defile 
five  companies  of  the  Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts  were  or- 
dered to  storm  the  enemy's  works.  The  order  is  not  free 
from  the  charge  of  down-right  recklessness.  Against  the 
concentrated  fire  of  artillery  and  musketry  at  one  hundred 
yards'  range  the  five  companies  charged  in  vain,  were  ral- 
lied twice  and  then  withdrawn  with  a  loss  of  twenty-nine 
killed  and  one  hundred  and  fifteen  wounded,  or  one  half 
the  officers  and  one  third  of  the  enlisted  men  engaged.  A 
useless  slaughter,  not  compensated  for  by  some  brilliant 
fighting  both  before  and  after  the  charge. 

In  passing,  I  desire  in  affectionate  remembrance  to 
simply  give  the  names  of  Captain  William  Dwight  Crane 


A  Lacerated  Slave. 

FROM    BATON    ROUGE,    LA. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  25 

and  Lieutenant  Winthrop  Perkins  Boynton,  who  were 
chums  in  Harvard  College,  officers  in  the  same  company, 
devoted  friends,  who  seemed  always  to  move,  to  think  and 
to  act  in  beautiful  accord,  and  who  here  fell  together  in  a 
common  death. 

Besides  these,  the  more  important  actions,  there  were 
many  minor  affairs,  not  large  enough  to  be  dignified  by  the 
name  of  battles,  but  entirely  sufficient  to  test  the  mettle  of 
the  men  as  soldiers.  In  these,  our  Massachusetts  regiments 
appear  to  have  been  uniformly  successful.  There  were 
reconnoissances  and  raids,  rifle  pits  were  charged  and  cap- 
tured, prisoners  were  taken,  and  the  resources  of  the  enemy 
removed  or  destroyed.  There  is  not  time,  nor  is  it  neces- 
sary, to  more  than  mention  the  conspicuous  service  rendered 
by  the  colored  troops  in  the  other  military  departments. 

Port  Hudson. 

At  Port  Hudson  and  at  Milliken's  Bend,  Louisiana,  the 
official  reports  commend  the  colored  troops  for  steadiness 
in  maintaining  positions  and  for  heroism  in  charging  the 
batteries  of  the  enemy. 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  Military  Historical  Society  of 
Massachusetts,  by  General  John  C.  Palfrey,  the  conduct 
of  the  black  regiments  at  Port  Hudson,  June  27,  1863,  is 
recorded  in  these  forceful  words :  "  Between  the  attacks  of 
Weitzel  and  i^ugur  an  assault  was  ordered  from  our  extreme 
right  by  the  black  regiments  as  a  diversion.  Their  ground 
was  very  difficult  and  disadvantageous,  and  the  garrison  re- 
ceived them  with  special  temper  and  exasperation.  But 
they  fought  without  panic,  and  suffered  severely  before  fall- 
ing back  in  good  order.  Their  conduct  and  its  indication 
of  character  and  manliness  made  a  profound  impression 


26  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

on  the  army,  and  later  through  the  country.  The  day 
should  be  one  of  the  famous  dates  in  the  progress  of 
their  race." 

i  Petersburg. 

At  the  first  attempt  on  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  June, 
1864,  Hinks'  Division  of  the  18th  Corps,  under  fire  for  the 
first  time,  carried  the  line  of  works  in  its  front,  and  cap- 
tured in  succession  seven  pieces  of  artillery  with  great 
spirit  and  dash.  This  decided  success  of  the  colored  troops 
gave  to  General  Smith  an  opportunity  to  seize  Petersburg, 
advantage  of  which,  however,  was  not  taken,  whether 
through  a  misinterpretation  of  General  Grant's  orders,  or 
because  the  city  was  believed  to  be  untenable,  is  a  matter 
of  considerable  debate. 

Chaffin's  Farm  and  Fort  Gilmer. 

Paine's  Division  of  the  18th  Corps  and  Birney's  Colored 
Division  of  the  10th  Corps  were  conspicuously  engaged  at 
Chaffin's  Farm,  in  the  assault  on  Fort  Gilmer  and  the 
intrenchments  at  New  Market  Heights.  At  Fort  Gilmer 
they  scaled  the  parapet  by  climbing  upon  each  other's 
backs.  A  distinguished  rebel  general  wrote  at  the  time  : 
"Fort  Gilmer  proved  the  other  day  that  they  would 
fight." 

The  Crater. 
At  the  battle  of  the  Crater,  at  Petersburg,  July  30th, 
1864,  the  colored  troops  were  ordered  in  after  the  assault 
was  a  bloody  failure.  They  failed  to  retrieve  the  disaster, 
but  were  in  no  way  responsible  for  it.  Their  casualties 
in  Ferrero's  Division  were   1327  killed,   wounded  and 


Col.  Edward  N.  Hallowell. 
brevet  brig.  gen.  u.  s.  v. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  27 

missing.  The  white  soldiers  in  the  Crater  were  per- 
mitted to  surrender;  many  of  the  blacks  were  given  no 
quarter. 

Nashville. 

In  the  victory  at  Nashville,  December  16th,  1864,  the 
heaviest  loss  in  any  regiment  occurred  in  the  13th  TJ.  S. 
Colored  Infantry, —  55  killed  and  106  wounded  :  total  221. 
General  George  H.  Thomas,  the  hero  of  that  battle,  a 
Virginian  and  at  one  time  a  slaveholder,  when  riding 
over  the  field,  saw  the  dead  colored  troops  commingled 
with  the  bodies  of  the  white  soldiers,  and  said,  "  This 
proves  the  manhood  of  the  negro."  ^ 

Fox  enumerates  52  battles  and  actions  in  which  colored 
troops  were  prominently  engaged,  and  from  the  same 
authority  it  appears  that  before  the  war  closed  there  were 
145  regiments  of  infantry,  7  of  cavalry,  12  of  heavy  artil- 
lery, 1  of  light  artillery,  and  1  of  engineers :  total  166.  Of 
these,  about  60  were  brought  into  action  on  the  battle- 
field, the  others  having  been  assigned  to  post  or  garrison 
duty.  Fox  makes  the  following  judicial  remark  :  "  Of 
the  regiments  brought  into  action,  only  a  few  were  engaged 
in  more  than  one  battle ;  the  war  was  half  over,  and  so 
the  total  of  killed  does  not  appear  as  great  as  it  otherwise 
would  have  done.  The  total  number  killed  or  mortally 
wounded  was  143  officers  and  2751  men."  ^  The  actual 
fighting  done  by  the  colored  troops  was  not,  under  the 
conditions  stated,  inconsiderable.  The  indirect  benefit  to 
our  armies  was  incalculable.  When  General  Grant  gath- 
ered together  his  forces  to  make  the  supreme  effort  that 

1  Van  Horn's  Life  of  Thomas,  347. 

2  Fox's  Kegimental  Losses,  56. 


28  THE  NEGRO  AS  A   SOLDIER 

culminated  in  the  capitulation  of  General  Lee,  he  added 
to  his  Army  of  the  Potomac  the  white  veterans  that  held 
the  forts,  the  cities  and  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  Coast, 
as  well  as  some  of  the  more  interior  parts  of  the  mainland. 
The  vacated  points  must  be  held  against  the  enemy  by 
some  one.  They  were  so  held  by  the  colored  troops.  I 
am  not  able  to  state  accurately  the  number  of  reinforce- 
ments thus  contributed  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Certainly  the  entire  10th  Army  Corps  was  relieved  and 
sent  to  Virginia.  It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  40,000 
men  is  not  an  over-estimate.  When  we  remember  that 
General  Grant  lost  60,000  men  in  60  days,  a  number  equal 
to  General  Lee's  effective  army  at  that  time,  it  well  be- 
comes a  question  worthy  the  serious  attention  of  the 
historian  what  might  have  been  the  fate  of  Grant's  Army 
in  the  Wilderness  had  there  been  40,000  fewer  veterans 
than  there  were. 

It  remains  to  be  recited  that  in  the  last  desperate  days 
of  the  expiring  Rebellion  the  Confederate  Congress  passed 
a  bill  which  provided  that  not  more  than  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  male  slaves  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and 
forty-five  should  be  called  out.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
General  Lee  gave  his  unqualified  advocacy  of  the  proposed 
measure.  Unfortunately  the  passage  of  the  act  had  been 
so  long  delayed  that  the  Confederacy  collapsed  before 
results  were  obtained.  I  wish  it  had  been  otherwise.  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  slave  regiments 
would  have  deserted  en  masse  to  the  Yankees,  and  that 
the  supposition  that  they  would  have  fought  for  the  Con- 
federacy is  hugely  and  grotesquely  preposterous. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  never  forget  the  debt  we  owe  to 
the  colored  soldiers.     Let  us  always  be  willing  to  give 


m  THE  WAR  OF  THE  KEBELLION.  29 

them  whatever  credit  is  their  due.  We  called  upon  them 
in  the  day  of  our  trial,  when  volunteering  had  ceased, 
when  the  draft  was  a  partial  failure  and  the  bounty  system 
a  senseless  extravagance.  They  were  ineligible  for  pro- 
motion, they  were  not  to  be  treated  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Nothing  was  definite  except  that  they  could  be  shot  and 
hanged  as  soldiers.  Fortunate  indeed  is  it  for  us,  as  well 
as  for  them,  that  they  were  equal  to  the  crisis ;  that  the 
grand  historic  moment  which  comes  to  a  race  only  once  in 
many  centuries  came  to  them,  and  that  they  recognized  it. 
They  saw  that  the  day  of  their  redemption  had  arrived. 
They  escaped  through  the  rebel  lines  of  the  South ;  they 
came  from  all  over  the  North ;  and,  when  the  war  closed, 
the  names  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  men  of 
African  descent  were  on  the  rolls. 


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